The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1887-06-25
WOOing and Winning.

WOOing and Winning.
When the Reverend Henry Dove was
sent out on a mission to-well, no
matter where, he went as a bachelor,
but everybody else in the pious little
corner of the colony was married.
One day, after dinner, the Reverend
Henry sat him down in a large arm
chair, and deliberated as follows: "My
work is here. l need a wife to help
me in it. Is there any one who knows
me who could be induced to come out
and share my fortunes-any one l could
love? I am forty. People know me
favorably. I'm not poor"
Suddenly face arose before him he
had only seen it few times, but it i'm
pressed him.
Miss Lilly Webb-what pretty girl
she was! He had been asked to dine
by Mr.. Webb, her father, when he ex-
changed pulpits with the minister of
the church they attended. And he
had found out that they were old friends.
Lilly's aunt was his first love, and
they had quarreled and parted. His
heart gave a leap when he first saw
Lilly. She looked very like her aunt.
She had said she would like to be a
missionary, and he fancied that she was
interested in his remarks.
Well, he could but try. No one else
seemed to touch his heart in the least.
He got out of his letter case minia-
ture of that first Miss Lilly Webb,
painted twenty years before, and looked
7She was prettier than her niece" he
said to himself.
He wondered whether she was mar
ried. and to whom. Of course she was
married. He would have heard of her
death.
He sat down and wrote carefully,
sedately, yet not without expression of
emotion.
He told her that her face was always
in his memory that her pleasure in the
work he had devoted himself to made
him hope she would not think him un-
suitable and he asked her if she could
find him agreeable enough to think of
as husband. He addressed this note
to Miss Lilly Webb, and sent if by the
mail steamer, and waited for the answer.
1t came and this was all:
Your letter mutually surprised me very
much but who is not pleased to be re-
membered2 I certainly like the work
YOU like, but let us make no mistake.
After we have corresponded for awhile,
YOU may ask me that last question again,
| if YOU by that time desire to do so, but
at present 1 promise nothing.
LILLY WEBB.
"It is a most sensible letter for a
Young girl to write" thought Mr..
Dove; and felt pleased at this arrange
ment. The correspondence began, and
proved most interesting. Finally ne
wrote once more. This time the reply
was an acceptance, and in the letter Lilly
said, sMrs. Hatton sends her love-
Mrs. Hatton was, Mr.. Dove decided,
his old sweetheart. In his next, ne
asked: is Mrs. Hatton's first name
Lilly?'
And received an affirmative reply.
And so she sent her love!
The Rev. Henry Dove was quite
alone, and he bent over the paper and
kissed the words, and tear fell upon
them. -,
sAh! there's nothing, after all, like
first love, he said.
But now his young betrothed was
coming to him. She would leave home
under the care of an old clergyman's
-wife, who had been back to visit her
children, and they would be married
on her arrival.
He looked very often at his old min
iature, now telling himself that it was
because she was so like her niece, his
future wife-so like-so very like
That was why he kissed it, of course
not for the sake of old memories now
At last there were no more letters
because the steamer had sailed, and after
the terror of storm, that shipwrecked
many vessels, Mr.. Dove knew that il
the vessel lying just little way from the
shore, his lady-love awaited him; ane
knew, too, that he was not rapturcusly
happy, only content, though it was real
ly a sacrifice that this girl had made fo
him.
He went out in one of the boats tina
went to meet the passengers, and ladl
in gray stood with her veil over her face
looking about her. He knew the figure
Lilly he said, this is so good o
you, dear
The cool of the day had come, ant
they walked arm-in-arm towards tn
mission-house together.
Then she said: 'How strange it is
sThe place? he asked.
Il did not mean that. That | shoult
be here-on your arm. Inever though
such a thing could be. l have neve
been able to write a word about ou
foolish quarrel, Henry. I thought W
could speak of it best. 1t was so foolls
so foolish.
} sOur quarrell' gasped Henry. H
stared at the gray veil. 'Our-our-
sWhen you said you had never fol
gotten me- said the lady, Il really fel
| .rr - I.ooco Mot n uuord a